There are no words...

There are no words:

On March 19^th to the 23^rd in Kemp Recital Hall at Illinois State University hosted the RED NOTE New Music Festival: Music & Words, Directed by Carl Schimmel Featuring performances by the Fulcrum Point New Music Project. This 4 day festival featured many different pieces either inspired by words or music that incorporated words in certain ways, but not in a normal lyrical way. This extravaganza of music included many different styles of music all the way from classical to experimental music. Many, but not all of these pieces were composed by many Illinois State Universities School of music faculty members including: Carl Schimmel, Martha Horst, Roy Magnuson, and Alexander Miller. I attended the concert on Monday March 19^th and Thursday March 24^th. This Festival is also a composition competition for High School Students. The winner this year with a nice folky composition by Bass Trombonist David Gerber from Peoria, IL entitled Concerto for Bass Trombone and Piano.

 The most interesting piece of March 19^th in my opinion was entitled “trust me.” This piece featured Karl Larson on piano and James Fusik on alto saxophone. Both musicians were incredibly talented, and this piece, a torrent of difficult rhythms, pitches, and uncharacteristic noises stood no chance against these capable performers. This song was incredible. The alto saxophone was asked to jump leap and skip through confusing yet entertaining patterns while the piano played back and forth with the saxophone and then expanded even further. The collaborative effort of these two performers was an amazing start to the festival and left the audience yearning for more.

My piece on March 23^rd was composed by my very own music theory teacher Dr. Roy D. Magnuson. The piece was entitled “…if we can still dance.” This piece was based off of a poem written by Shanny Magnuson, his wife, and their mutual friend Robbie Q. Teller. This collaborative effort was inspired with all of the hard experiences they all have had with the tragic consequences with Alzheimer’s Disease. To create this poem, they described what they intended to do was to create a poem that “forgets itself.” They asked many people with alzheimer’s disease what the most beautiful they have ever seen was, and used these answers to create their stirring poem. Already powerful, the mystical flowing dance music performed by the Quasari Quartet from the University of Illinois underneath these words and memories formed a surreal and ironically unforgettable product of music and words.

The Music & Words RED NOTE New Music Festival left me feeling a sense of sophistication that could only come from having your intellectual and musical horizons broadened to an extravagant point. They left me speechless.